Weed-Growers Get Busted When Heat Lamps Melt The Snow Off Their Roof

A home marijuana farm in the Netherlands was discovered by police after they noticed something strange about the building's roof.

Daily Mail reports the city of Haarlem had experienced snowfall one day, but a house's roof in town looked like it hadn't been touched by a single flake.

This made the police think the temperature inside the home was high enough to melt the snow on the roof.

They raided the building, and sure enough, the lack of snow was caused by the lighting fixtures needed to cultivate marijuana plants.

A snow-free roof also led to the exposure of a farm in Zutphen containing 88 plants last Monday as well as another in Arnhem two days later.

Marijuana cultivation is legal in the Netherlands but only with five or fewer plants because possessing any more suggests an intent to sell.

The sale of marijuana is entirely illegal, and residents are not legally allowed to have any more than 5 grams of marijuana on themselves in public.

Dutch police will continue keeping an eye out for snow-free roofs since most pot farmers prefer to utilize otherwise normal-looking homes for cultivation.

Many Dutch social media users disagree with the police tactic, however, fearing it will lead to the raid innocent homes with saunas on their top floors.

The technique is rather lax, however, compared to those of police in nations where pot remains entirely illegal.

British police, for example, spot growers with helicopters that can pick up high amounts of heat coming from homes more than a thousand feet away.

Citations: Crooks growing cannabis are caught after neighbours notice all the snow had melted from their roof (Daily Mail)